


Times in the Bathing Chamber

by of_shadows_and_wolves



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Bath Sex, F/M, First Time, Male Apprentice, My own character, Penis In Vagina Sex, Shameless Smut, That's right kids I payed for that part of story and boy was it worth it, his name is Lorick and i would die for him and nadia, i have chosen to remedy this, the bathing scene did not have nearly the sexual implications that it could have
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:02:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25252807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/of_shadows_and_wolves/pseuds/of_shadows_and_wolves
Summary: She smiled at me showing off her shining white teeth and I nearly gasped at the sheer beauty of her. Her eyes were filled with a hunger I didn’t dare try to understand. “I only jest with you Lorick,” she mused, crossing the few steps over to the edge of the pool before sliding the shawl a little bit up to hide her breasts from the side. But this did nothing but show off the truly beautiful view of her smooth muscled back, her wide hips, her…I forced myself to look away before my problem got any worse. I heard her laugh again, soft and so, so sweet and I found myself looking at her again. Her eyes were half lidded as she stared at me over one shoulder, a grin that was purely feline on her full lips. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you did spend all your time staring at your reflection,” she mused, taking several steps into the water and stretching sinuously, “It is rather beautiful.”
Relationships: Apprentice/Nadia (The Arcana)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	Times in the Bathing Chamber

The bathing hall in the palace was huge and opulent, and the air rippled with the heady scents of lilac, lavender, and jasmine blossoms. The heavily perfumed air was thick with the cloying moisture of hot water and I felt my muscles go lax and smooth at just imagining how it would feel to immerse myself in the pool. The place was a cavalcade of sound and motion. Around us bath attendants went to and fro fetching towels and cloths, pouring water and wine into small cups, and preparing sweet smelling salves and oils that Nadia used whenever she bathed. There was a small army of them, and they all stared at me with confusion in their eyes and I became overtly aware of how odd it must be for them to see the new court magician in the bathing chambers with the Countess. I looked around at Nadia preparing to tell her that I would meet her when she was done, and head over to my own significantly smaller bathing room to wash the sickly worm muck and dust caked dirt off, but before I could say anything she made a motion with her hand. 

Immediately, all of the attendants began filing out of the room through concealed doorways in the sides of the massive room. Some stopped to place cloths and the like near the pool before bowing low to the countess, while others simply walked away with well-hidden backward glances at me. One older woman in pale yellow robes, her graying hair tied up in a sagging bun, noticed me staring and actually offered a small knowing grin and a smooth wink. I felt the heat creep up my cheeks and looked away. In less than a minute we were alone in the chamber with nothing but the swirling strands of steam to keep us company. 

I swallowed thickly, feeling a lump swell in the base of my throat and turned to look at Nadia. She surveyed the place with a keen eye, scanning around as if more servants would pop back up out of nowhere and spoil the calm and quiet. I opened my mouth again, intent to tell her that I would leave her to her privacy and return when she was done but she spoke before I had a chance. 

“So,” she suddenly snapped, her beautiful, caramel sweet voice laced with anger and something else, something almost like...well if I didn’t know any better, I would be tempted to say fear. But why would she be afraid? 

“You have met my sister,” she snapped again, breaking me out of my thoughts, “Tell me, how charming do you find her? Shall you run to her side immediately, or wait a few days?” 

For a moment I just stared at her beautiful face, her gold brown cheeks stained crimson with rage and her red eyes shining with anger and unshed tears. Of all the things I could have possibly guessed her saying, that wasn’t it. I spluttered, “I-I’m not going anywhere, Nadia.” I tried for it to come firm and resolute, but somehow it sounded to me as more of a question. What did she mean? Why would I be going anywhere with her sister? Hell, where would I even be going? Back to Prakra, back to a country I had never been with a woman I had only met a few hours ago? 

Her eyes widened momentarily, and I watched as her skin went from the flushed red of anger to the creeping blush of shame. Her eyes danced across my before sliding away and she turned from me, a small “Oh,” rushing out past her lips. We stood there in silence for several long seconds. I could feel the moisture beginning to collect along the edges of my baggy pants and could feel the smooth sliding of sweat as it beaded down my back in the warmth of the room. 

“I...I am sorry,” she said finally turning back to face me, her eyes still downcast and filled with shame, “It is, perhaps, possible that I am not as...over my sisters as I perhaps thought.” She looked at me then, her red eyes catching mine and I could see in them some hidden pain, some sordid history with her sister that I knew nothing of. “Nasmira,” she continued, “has always been beloved by the people. They find her quite easy to talk to.” In that moment I could hear the unspoken words as she thought them behind her eyes. Easier to talk to than herself. 

“She has never struggled to make friends. And growing up, she would often charm them right away from me.” She bared her teeth at this thought and shook her head, as annoyance flickered across her features, “Just look at Praetor Vlastomil. Only a moment of Nasimira’s company and he’s tripping over himself to tell her everything.” She makes a snarling frustrated noise low in her throat before she slips around one of the changing panels and I hear the sounds of cloth sliding over skin as she changes out of her riding clothes. 

My head swirled with the implications of what she was saying, piecing it together with the things she had told me that morning during the ride. What had it been like for her, I found myself wondering, to grow up as the youngest in a royal palace? What hadn’t she told me about her family? And why on earth had I tried to make small talk in the carriage ride back, no wonder she believed me to go off running away with her sister. She probably had believed me to be as enthralled by her as Vlastomil had been. I realized then that she probably didn’t see the way that I looked at her when she wasn’t watching. The thought made something clench in my belly and I felt heat once more flood along my face. 

What different lives we must have led, I realized, she must be so used to people looking up to her. To go from a princess to a countess, to her that must have been barely even a step. Just the next rung on the ladder she had to climb. People would have been idolizing and watching her for years before I came along with my magic shop and lost memories. Which begged the question, what was I doing here, in a bathing chamber with a member of royalty? 

I glanced back up, thoughts still racing and swirling through my mind, to see her shadowed figure still undoing the multitude of buttons on her clothing before kneeling to stare at my reflection in the water. A face I didn’t truly recognize or remember stared back at me, its long shaggy black curls twisting around it in waves of ink. Mismatched eyes stared back out at me, sunk deep in their sockets, one a brown that was almost black, the other the cool green of malachite. My cheekbones were high up on my face and beneath my eyes dark rings sat like fresh bruises. In the rippling reflection of the water I could see the twinning black tattoos that snaked their way across my exposed chest, my open vest doing nothing to keep them hidden as they snaked and crawled their way from chest to shoulders and down before stopping at my wrists. I twisted my arms watching the thick black ink ripple with the movements, ink that I did not remember getting. We were complete opposites in all the ways that mattered. I was a lowly magician, and she was the ruler of an entire kingdom. So then, what did she see in me beyond someone to help her? Did she see a stranger like I did? Did she see an odd man that was almost more of a walking corpse than a living breathing person? Did she merely see a person who was aiding her in an investigation? Or did she see nothing at all?

I could feel my mind going over the last few days with her, the flirting and the looks and everything else. I tried to make sense of it all. What was she doing, what did she want? She flirted with me yes but, how much of that was out of desire and how much was out of...out of what? Pity perhaps? But did people flirt out of pity? I didn’t think that they did but then, I had no memories of my life or any real knowledge of the arts of love that I didn’t know for sure. It was possible that she had only flirted with me out of some sort of thanks for what I was doing. But then, that didn’t feel quite right either. 

I was so entranced by my thoughts that I didn’t even notice when she finally came out from behind the panels now dressed in a gossamer thin silk shawl. 

“Well Lorick,” she mused softly, all frustration and annoyance gone and her voice as achingly beautiful as it always was, “In love with your reflection?” 

My head snapped up to her and I gave her what I hoped was a small smile but knew was probably more of a grimace. “I, um,” I started, trying to figure out how to explain what I was thinking about while also attempting to keep my eyes from sliding down to take in the smooth expanses of skin that glowed in the warm light. I felt a soft heat begin in my belly and was very, very, happy that my pants billowed out and hid what was now beginning to stir between my legs. 

She smiled at me showing off her shining white teeth and I nearly gasped at the sheer beauty of her. Her eyes were filled with a hunger I didn’t dare try to understand. “I only jest with you Lorick,” she mused, crossing the few steps over to the edge of the pool before sliding the shawl a little bit up to hide her breasts from the side. But this did nothing but show off the truly beautiful view of her smooth muscled back, her wide hips, her…I forced myself to look away before my problem got any worse. I heard her laugh again, soft and so, so sweet and I found myself looking at her again. Her eyes were half lidded as she stared at me over one shoulder, a grin that was purely feline on her full lips. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you did spend all your time staring at your reflection,” she mused, taking several steps into the water and stretching sinuously, “It is rather beautiful.” 

The heat that pulsed in my stomach split as blood rushed up to my cheeks making them burn and down to my member making it even harder. I stared as she stretched again, moving her shoulders and her hips in an undulating dance as she pulled her body up, her long tyrian purple hair tumbling all the way down to, thankfully, cover the round curve of her glorious backside. The sun that streamed in through the window made her skin glow as she looked over one shoulder to stare at me, a thin strand of hair falling across her face, her lips parted just enough that I could see her tongue flick out across them. Her expression was lazy and sated almost like a cat’s but in her eyes, I could see an intensity that made my breath catch in my chest and my cock pulse. 

“You're still filthy,” she said her voice barely above a whisper as if she didn’t want to break the tableau she had created, “Won’t you join me?” 

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out save a short gasp. Staring at her I was reminded just how achingly beautiful she really and truly was. “I don’t,” I started, my voice coming out reedy and hoarse and I stopped. I cleared my throat hoping that the words would be able to come out but when I opened my mouth again nothing came out at all. 

She smiled that lazy smile of hers and tossed the shawl onto the bank before slipping down into the water, which I simultaneously was thankful for and oh so very saddened by. “Well either strip and join me,” she laughed, “Or grab me the wine.” 

I took a moment to examine my options. Option one, I could leave. I could walk out that door and turn my back on this. But I already knew I wasn’t going to do that. Option two, I could go and get the wine. Surely alcohol seemed like a good idea, certainly it would do a good job making me a tad looser and significantly less anxious. But the idea of tainting this memory with the haze that the wine would surely bring? No, I wasn’t going to do that either. Which only left me one option, one achingly hard option. 

Again, I was grateful that the clothing I owned was the same billowing baggy style as Asra’s as I turned from her and carefully shook the open vest off before setting it neatly on one chair. Thereafter taking several short quick breaths I slid my pants and undergarments off in one smooth movement. I tried my best to not think about how achingly hard I was, and how close she would be, just as naked as I was. Then all that was left was to slide into the water. 

I made my way in and had to bite back a moan as the heated water immediately made my muscles go slack and loose. The water felt amazing against my skin and I found that while I had intended to go over to the other side so that she could have some manner of privacy, my muscles stubbornly refused to move. 

“Of all the problems in Vesuvia,” Nadia mused, catching my eye and grinning once more, “They really and truly know how to make wonderful baths don’t you think.” 

I groaned my assent as I twisted as she had feeling the bones and muscles pop as the tension and stress slowly slid out from them. Immediately I flushed again at the noise I made, but Nadia’s smile only went wider as her pupils began to overtake her red irises. 

“Wash my hair won’t you,” she said softly after we sat together for a few more moments in silence, “It’s so difficult to do myself and for some reason none of the attendants are around.” She gave me a knowing look at this before turning away expectantly. I swallowed again, but dutifully made my way over, using those precious few seconds to try and think of a way to do this without revealing just how aroused I truly was. 

I came up with nothing of course as I positioned myself behind her as she moved off the bench to recline using my knees as cushions. “This will be fine,” I told myself as I began softly pulling her hair out of its many small braids and sliding my fingers through the silky tresses. She let out a contented sigh, a sound that made my heart soar, at my ministrations and she slid herself more comfortably on my legs as I reached behind me to grab the oils and begin working those into her hair. As I washed her hair, I could see the slender arch of her neck and was suddenly overwhelmed by the supple skin that was soft against the tips of my fingers. I found myself wanting to press my mouth to it, to find out if her skin would taste as good as it smelled against my lips and my tongue. 

I could do it, I thought to myself, press my mouth to her throat and kiss my way up to her ear the same way she had that night on the bridge. Or I could go lower, slide off the bench and turn her around and begin kissing my way down between her breasts to the smooth and toned stomach all the way to the treasure between her thighs. What would she taste like there, I wondered to myself as my fingers stopped moving, still tangled up in her hair? What sounds would she make if I kissed her there? She had made such a beautiful sound when I began washing her hair, could I do that again? The idea of that sent sparks of pleasure all over my body and I felt my muscles begin to tense once more.

“Lorick,” she said softly, breaking me out of my fantasies, “Why did you stop?” I felt my stomach go tight at the soft command in her tone and I immediately knew that she knew exactly what I had been thinking about. I swallowed again trying to come up with some excuse, something to explain, just something. “Finish washing my hair, Lorick,” she commanded, turning to look at me once more with those heavy-lidded eyes that twinkled with amusement and something headier and heavier. Without another word I started rubbing the oil in, silencing my fantasies with an iron fist. Or at least, that's what I tried to do before I felt her begin to stroke up and down my leg with one manicured nail. 

I couldn’t help myself, I gasped, and my hands stopped working once more. But as I stopped so too did she. She turned once more, her eyes now shining bright with amusement, “What is it Lorick,” she chuckled, cocking her head to one side, “Why do you keep stopping?” 

I opened my mouth. 

I closed it. 

I opened it. 

I closed it. 

I had no idea what was happening anymore, but I could still feel the heat from the finger where it sat on my leg, a heat that was so much warmer than the bath water. She grinned once more before softly, so incredibly softly, whispering, “If you finish, my dear, you’ll get a special reward.” That was all the motivation I needed, and I began once more to wash her hair. 

And so too did that nail begin to glide up and down my leg once more. It was so strange, I thought to myself as I continued to wash her hair, that this is enough to make gasp. It was just a nail on my leg. Just a simple and extremely unerotic thing and yet with each passing swipe I could feel my control over myself slipping. My movements began to quicken, I was still gentle with her of course, but where I had once carefully massaged each strand I was now washing thick clusters of it, knowing that with each moment I wasted was a moment not spent with my lips on her skin. 

It took 10 minutes to fully work the oil both in and out of her hair. 10 minutes to wash and rinse and then brush any and all of the knots out. 10 minutes with that nail toying endlessly with my leg. 

“Done,” I breathed into the air, as I set the gilded comb onto the floor behind me. 

“And what a marvelous job you did,” she crooned turning around to face me fully, her hair over one shoulder showing off a whole side of her graceful neck. She took my hand and pulled me down next to her, her hands going around my neck before threading into my damp hair. She scratched at my scalp and I let out a low moan and felt my eyes flicker shut at her touch. 

“What should I give you as your reward, Lorick,” she whispered, her lips right next to the shell of my ear, her caramel voice thick with lust, “Should I let you choose, hmm?” 

My breath was coming out heavily now, each gasp in line with the racing pulse of my heart. “Lorick,” she crooned, dragging out my name, “What is it you want as your reward, hmm?” I felt her lips move down past my ear onto my neck before feeling them press into it softly but firmly. “Perhaps I could kiss you here,” she muses, pausing between words to suck the skin between her lips and nipping every now and again. She moved again going around to the other side and giving it the same treatment, “Or maybe here.” 

Each brush of her lips against my skin had me gasping and gaping for air. I was beyond feeling shame now, beyond feeling anything but a deep and pounding want for her. “Tell me what you want my love,” she whispers into my other ear, nibbling on the lobe, “You did such a good job and I simply must reward you.” 

“A-anything you wish to give me Countess,” I manage to pant out as she continues to relentlessly toy with my neck with her lips. 

She stops suddenly and I feel her pull away from me. My eyes snap open and I see that her face is right before mine, her pupils blown wide and as black as sin. “Countess,” she whispered, the cockiness and coolness suddenly gone from her voice, and I realized my mistake. She thinks I am only doing this out of some loyalty to her, that I do not want this. 

I kiss her, pulling her face to mine and threading my hands into her hair that shines with the oil I labored so hard to work into it. For a moment she goes still with surprise but it's for only a moment before she’s kissing me back with an intensity and heat that threatens to burn me alive. And for a moment, just a moment, I feel really and truly alive. 

But then her tongue presses against the seam of my mouth, and I realize that I had never lived before. I had never done this before, kissed another person. Or if I had it was during the times that I do not remember. But if I had kissed someone before I know that it was nothing like kissing Nadia. Like all things she did she did not do it halfheartedly, no she put everything she had into it. Her lips were berry sweet against mine as her tongue stroked into my mouth and I felt rather than hear the high pitch keen I made as she nipped at my bottom lip. 

I don’t know how long we stayed like that, lips glued together, but I do know that I could have spent my whole life kissing her and never grow tired of it. Never want for air or food or water, want for nothing but the taste of her lips against mine. But air is something that all people need, and at some point, she pulls away to take in several ragged breaths. “You,” she panted as she continued to give soft pecks, “Are much too good at this Lorick.” 

“I uh, I aim to please N-Nadia,” I gasped back as her mouth went back to my throat to continue kissing there. My hands go up to her hair as she begins sucking harder on my skin, and I know instantly that there are going to be great purple red bruises there. The knowledge that I would bear her marks on my skin, where all could see, doesn’t make me feel the shame I was expecting to feel, but rather makes me feel something I couldn’t even begin to describe even if there wasn’t a beautiful naked woman in my arms. 

But it wasn’t enough, her lips on my skin. I needed more, more of her, and with a gentle tug I pull her back up to my face. “Lorick what’s wro-Ohh,” she moans out as I begin to kiss and suck my down her throat and all the way up to a spot just beneath her ear that makes her let out that gorgeous gasp I heard earlier. 

I spent several long minutes there, tasting the skin of her neck, never going so far to mark it but claiming it in my own way. But my fantasies soon become too strong at the forefront of my mind and I pull away to stare at Nadia. 

She stares back at me, her pupils blown wide and her eyes heavy lidded. “You are beautiful,” I hear myself say before pressing a small light kiss to her lips. 

She chuckles lightly at that resting her head against my shoulder, “Speak for yourself.” But I can feel her grin against my shoulder as her hands go up to trace small patterns along my back and I know that this is just as powerful for her as it is for me. She moves then, going to sit in my lap and I hiss as her thighs brush against my too sensitive cock as she positions herself comfortably and she laughs softly into my ear. 

“Hmm,” she croons swiveling her hips against the rigid pole of my member, “Now whatever could this be Lorick?” 

“Nadia,” I gasp the pleasure of feeling her rub against it almost too much for me, “Nadia I-I.” 

“Shhh,” she whispers as she rises out of the water, her hand coming down to wrap around my shaft. I keen at the touch and see white. Through some miracle I don’t spill all over her hand as she slowly begins to stroke while whispering in my ear. “Is this alright my love,” she cooed, her hand never slowing or going faster, “God you feel so good in my hand love, so perfect. I want you inside me love, is that ok? You want to be inside me to, don’t you? Yes of course you do.” 

I can’t speak for the pleasure of her silken skin against me is just too much and I only moan and hope that she knows that it is enthusiastic consent. “Alright my love,” she says her hand stilling and her hand comes up to go against my cheek and suddenly I see the nervousness in her eyes again. “This-this is ok isn’t it,” she says, all of the cool domineering nature suddenly gone and replaced with a nervousness that rivals my own, “If this is all too much for you we can-” But I cut her off with a kiss. 

“Nadia,” I whisper as I pull away and hold her gaze with my own, “I want this. I want you.” Her face is blank as she processes my words before splitting into a wide smile. 

“Ok my darling,” she says all of the confidence back in her voice, “I hope you are ready.” She winks before rising just enough and slowly sliding down onto me. 

I moan as I feel myself enter into her and my hands go to her hips, calling out a long and low exaltation at the smooth wet feeling of her. She lets out several short panting breaths as she adjusts to me joining with her and her eyes find mine once more. “You feel so good my love,” she whimpers as she slowly begins to move her hips in small circling twists, “I do not know what I may have done with Lucio but I know that it was nothing as good as this.” A feeling that is purely male glows in my chest at her words and I try a small thrust up into her in time with one of her twists. The resulting moan is low and loud, and her head falls heavily onto my shoulder. 

“Oh, by all the gods do that again Lorick,” she moans, “Please Lorick please.” Without another word I begin to thrust slowly into her my hands going to rest on those hips that I have spent so much time watching in those tight dresses of hers. My actions are met with low pleas of “faster my darling faster” and I do my best to comply.

“N-nadia,” I gasp as she begins to ride me fully, her hips going up and landing down before grinding into my pelvis, “I need...I need to touch you.” I need something to distract myself, something to keep me from exploding within her before she has had her pleasure. 

“Yes, Lorick my love please,” she gasps as I give a particularly deep thrust into her, “Touch me.” 

I need nothing else and my hands begin to explore. I spend several moments kneading the soft thick flesh of her gorgeous ass and use it as a way to push her down harder onto my cock which makes her give out several loud moans, and I file the knowledge away for later before going up to her breasts. They are perfect I realize as I begin to balance them up and down in my hands, the water giving them an added buoyancy. I have never seen a woman’s breasts before, but I know immediately that no other woman alive has a pair more perfect than Nadia’s. As I begin to toy slightly with her nipples, Nadia releases a soft chuckling moan, “You know darling, it would feel amazing if you were to kiss them.” 

I stare up at her like a man on the altar of a god , my mouth open in shock and awe. She laughs at this and moves her hips even faster and I feel that heat building in my stomach. I was not a stranger by any means to what that feeling meant and I began to pant more. 

“I,” I start before she does something truly wicked with her hips and I cry out in raucous pleasure, “I’m close Nadia.” 

She laughs again at that and takes one of my hands off her breast, “Pity I would have liked for you to play with them more, but I suppose this will just have to do.” She leads my hand down to her soaking core and to the small bundle of nerves at its apex and shows me with her fingers how she likes to be touched there. 

Her gasps start coming fast as I rub against it with two fingers, it’s awkward trying to do that and continue to thrust into her, but for her somehow, I manage. I want her so badly to get her pleasure first, but I feel that spring in my belly getting tighter and tighter with every moment that passes and each thrust of our hips. 

So, I do the only thing I know how to do, I begin to recite the major arcana. “The Fool,” I whisper, worrying my lower lip between my teeth to hold off the relentless waves of pleasure that threaten to drown me, “The Magician. The High Priestess. The Empress.” I rub harder with my fingers and her moans get louder and louder, her thrusts becoming sloppier and sloppier. I get all the way to the World before she finally crests and cums with a great long cry of pure pleasure. And then barely more than a heartbeat later I followed after. 

We stayed that way for several long seconds, catching our breaths and luxuriating in the afterglow of our orgasms. With a low groan from the both of us she pulls herself off me but doesn't get out of my lap. 

“That was magnificent Lorick,” she says resting her head on one tattooed shoulder, her chest rising as she tried to get her breath back, “Really and truly magnificent.” Her eyes are still lidded heavily as she stares at me and she kisses me softly. 

As she pulls away and I look up into her face I hear myself say, with all of the truth I have within me, “Nadia I think I love you.” 

I expect her eyes to go wide, for her to pull away, or to laugh in my face. But she does none of those things, instead she gives me another one of those lazy smiles before saying in that caramel rich voice of hers in a way that makes me realize that this is only the beginning, “Oh my dear Lorick, you haven’t even begun to see just how much I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all liked it! Let me know in the comments what you thought!


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